The Scout Report - December 20, 1996

December 20, 1996

A Publication of Internet Scout
Computer Science Department, University of Wisconsin

A Project of the InterNIC

The Scout Report is a weekly publication offering a selection of new and newly discovered Internet resources of interest to researchers and educators, the InterNIC's primary audience. However, everyone is welcome to subscribe to one of the mailing lists (plain text or HTML). Subscription instructions are included at the end of each report.

Experimental Web Catalog-Library of Congresshttp://lcweb2.loc.gov/catalog/
Library of Congress Information System (LOCIS)http://lcweb.loc.gov/homepage/online.htmltelnet://locis.loc.gov
Though still under development, an experimental online public access catalog for the Library of Congress is now available, providing access to over 4.8 million records (out of 27 million) from the Library of Congress. Compared to LOCIS, LC's command-driven catalog, this new format is easier to navigate, allowing users to search by keyword, author, title, ISBN, and LC class searches, as well as limit by format, date, publisher, and language. An exciting new feature is the ability to sort results by date, title, or LC call number, either in ascending or descending order. Individual records are displayed in hypertext format, making it possible to jump to other works on the same subject, call number, or by same author, as well as to link to online texts and images, and view the MARC (MAchine Readable-Cataloging) formats of any record. Note that at this time help screens are in development and not yet available. [ADG][Back to Contents]

Brookings Institution Policy Briefshttp://www.brookings.org/comm/policybriefs/archive.htm
Brookings Institutionhttp://www.brookings.org/
The Brookings Institution, America's oldest policy think tank, has recently made a new series of its publications, Policy Briefs, available at its web site. These are short papers that focus on various aspects of US and international politics, economics, and foreign policy. At present, ten papers are available, including "China and the WTO," "Inside Outsourcing: More Bad News from Business Regulation?," "An Analysis of Out-of-Wedlock Births in the United States," and "America's Bosnia Policy: The Work Ahead." The Brookings site also contains information about the institution and its work. [JS][Back to Contents]

Tales From the Electronic Frontierhttp://www.wested.org/tales/
Text onlyhttp://www.wested.org/tales/textonly/index.html
This short book, produced by WestEd, a "non-profit research, development and service agency dedicated to improving education and other opportunities for children, youth and adults," is composed of a series of nine teachers' stories of how they used the Internet to teach K-12 math and science. Included are stories on how eighth graders studied air quality issues using an old computer with a slow modem, primary and middle school students sharing ideas with college students in solving math problems, and how a high school class studied earth science via the Internet, among others. Also included are sidebars on teaching issues, and Internet tools and resources. The book is interesting in that it demonstrates the Internet as a teaching tool, as well as a teaching resource. [JS][Back to Contents]

Great Lakes Information Management Resource (GLIMR)http://www.cciw.ca/glimr/
This site is provided by the Great Lakes Information Management Resource (GLIMR), which works in association with part of Environment Canada's national network known as the Green Lane. It provides an index of Environment Canada's Great Lakes resources, which include current events, publications, programs, and databases. The site includes topics such as biodiversity, environmental assessment, water quality, sustainable development, political issues, and many others. This information is very well organized for easy access. [TB][Back to Contents]

Since 1990, Carnegie Mellon University has managed the English Server as a cooperative dedicated to electronic distribution of texts in many disciplines. The collections center around topics related to the study of literature, in the broadest sense. The main page offers no fewer than 36 subject areas for browsing, from drama and poetry to feminism and rhetoric. The "new items" list is constantly updated, showing new texts and resources that are added irregularly (sometimes several in a day, sometimes one in a fortnight). A particular strength of the site is its expanding collection of texts and links to texts (now more than 10,000 in various disciplines). Texts prepared for the English Server, such as Edward Bellamy's _Looking Backward_, made available 11/28/96, are offered both in chapter-length HTML pages and as PostScript files. Several web-based journals, such as Bad Subjects and Cultronix, have a home on the site, and a telnet conference line is available for discussion of issues. From cultural theory to eighteenth-century literature, those with an interest in the arts and humanities will find much here to absorb. Note that non-web access methods may not be as current as the web version. [ML][Back to Contents]

DERWeb--Dental Education Resources on the Webhttp://www.derweb.ac.uk/
Table of Contents:http://www.derweb.ac.uk/contents.html
DERWeb, provided by the Departments of Information Studies and Restorative Dentistry at the University of Sheffield (UK), is a dentistry meta-site that is highlighted by an image library containing over 1,600 images on "Paedodontics, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Oral Medicine, Preventive Dentistry, Restorative Dentistry, Periodontology, Orthodontics, Radiology and Cross Infection Control." Unfortunately, the images are sorted only by accession number, and no searching is available. However, the collection does offer 2 image sizes of each image, along with a caption. The site also contains a number of teaching materials, the British Dental Association web pages, and pointers to other dental resources. There is also a directory of over 135 dentistry related companies (mostly in the UK). [JS][Back to Contents]

LEGPHIL--Philosophy of Law Mailing List
LEGPHIL is a new academic mailing list on all topics related to philosophy of law. It is for both discussion and bibliographical reference in the field of legal philosophy, legal theory, methods of law, sociology of law, etc. [JS]

World Bank Annual Report 1996 [Frames, .pdf] 263p.http://www.worldbank.org/html/extpb/annrep96/
This report details the activities of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA) for the 1995-96 fiscal year. Included are sections on Bank operations, programs, group activities, finances, and financial statements of the IBRD and IDA. The report is highlighted by regional perspective sections (sketches of what the Bank considers development progress and prospects) on Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, South Asia, Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East and North Africa. The entire report is available in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format, and all except the financial statements and appendices are available in HTML format as well. [JS][Back to Contents]

Two Interactive Children's Learning Sites
The Prince and I [Frames, Java]http://www.nfb.ca/Kids/
Hop Pop Town [Shockwave, MIDI]http://www.kids-space.org/HPT/
Two wonderful new, albeit browser-taxing, children's learning sites are the National Film Board of Canada's The Prince and I and the NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone) Digital Museum's Hop Pop Town. Aimed at grades K-6, The Prince and I is highlighted by Java-based word puzzles (Reading Coach), a story (What's He Up To?), an interactive puzzle (The Mission), and an interactive story in which the child selects from various plot line choices and receives the story in email. The Prince and I promotes reading and problem solving, and is optimized for Windows-based Java-enabled browsers. Hop Pop Town (aimed at three to ten year olds) "encourag[es] children to improvise and to create musical sequences, the vital factors for them to enjoy and learn music." It does this with the aid of interactive Shockwave files that allow your child to create music (scales, sounds of animals, and orchestra instrument sounds, among others). [JS][Back to Contents]

Eyeneer Music Archives [AIFF, .wav, QuickTime]http://www.eyeneer.com/
Steve Bahcall has created a music archive "that seeks to make comprehensive information about music publicly available." The site is divided into four main music genres--international, modern jazz, contemporary classical, and traditional American music. "In each section you will find an ever-growing array of background info, biographies, discographies, new releases, photos, QuickTime video, and sound samples." A highlight of the site is a selection of sound samples that allows listeners to this site to hear an eclectic collection of music, from a wooden trumpet of Banda people of the Central African Republic to a 78rpm recording of Mississippi Delta blues singer Charley Patton. [ADG][Back to Contents]

DeLorme's CyberRouterhttp://www.delorme.com/cybermaps/cyberrouter.htm
DeLorme, the well known atlas and gazetteer publisher, now provides a web-based road route finder for places in the United States. Via a web form, users enter the starting and ending places for their trip, and the CyberRouter returns a trip itinerary (concise or complete details, quickest or shortest route) and route maps, either route-aligned or north-up oriented. For long trips, maps are split into multiple parts. This is a useful as well as fun site. [JS][Back to Contents]

Kwanzaa Information Centerhttp://www.melanet.com/kwanzaa/
Provided by the MELANET Information and Communications Network, the Kwanzaa Information Center is intended to be a year-round resource. The site offers information about the background and purpose of Kwanzaa, its symbols and principles, and a schedule for the celebration. The site also has links to other MELANET pages, a Kwanzaa guest book and links page, an Internet Swahili dictionary, and an article on Johnkankus, an African American holiday celebration dating back more than 275 years. For those unfamiliar with the traditions of Kwanzaa, or those who would like more information about its observance, this site provides a solid reference. [ML][Back to Contents]

Espresso-Fiction--Caffeine-Induced Fiction Mailing List
Espresso-Fiction is not a list where writers share their prose about coffee. This is where you write about how you have those imagination buzzes brought on by far too much espresso...latte...cappuccino, or just plain life. And what comes from that imagination... Anger, fear, lust, social consciousness, desire, joy. Whatever it is that burns in your soul that just has to be put down on paper. In the fashion that it was meant to be written. Your words. You don't critique here, unless the author of a submission is just begging for it. [JS]

Yahoo! Debuts New Search Enginehttp://www.yahoo.com/
Yahoo! has enhanced its search interface to help users more quickly reach the Internet resources they need. Searches now return a summary page, which presents hits in four categories: Yahoo Categories, Web Sites, Net Events (from the Yahoo Net Events site) and News (from Reuters, PR Newswire, Business Wire, and UPI). If a search comes up empty in these four categories, it will be referred to the Alta Vista search engine for an Internet-wide search. In addition, search results are now presented in order of relevance (as determined by the search engine, which may have a fairly sketchy grasp on what the user really wants) rather than alphabetically, though the user can choose an alphabetical list instead. An advanced search page allows limited Boolean operation, searching of particular Yahoo! resources, a time frame for listings, and how many matches to display per page. [ML][Back to Contents]

FutureSplash Web Animation Toolhttp://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/
If you are interested in creating animations for your Web site, FutureWave's FutureSplash Animator a great tool that is relatively inexpensive, and creates very compact high quality 2D animations. The player plug-in is freely available for both Mac and Windows and requires very little RAM, which is an advantage over such tools as Shockwave. The files are small because the animations consist of vector graphics, unlike the series of bitmapped images used by other methods such as animated GIFs. Unfortunately FutureSplash does not allow designers to incorporate sound into animations. One of its most interesting abilities is the creation of buttons and screen areas that change as the mouse moves over them. The Microsoft Network (http://www.msn.com/) has recently redesigned its site to take advantage of the FutureSplash plug-in, and is a good demonstration of its capabilities. This is a great tool for animating Web pages. [PJD][Back to Contents]

Copyright Susan Calcari, 1996. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the Scout Report provided the copyright notice and this paragraph is preserved on all copies. The InterNIC provides information about the Internet to the US research and education community under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation: NCR-9218742. The Government has certain rights in this material.

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Wisconsin - Madison, the National Science Foundation, AT&T, or Network Solutions, Inc.

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